Sheldon Plankton
Sheldon J. Plankton '(born November 30, 1942, age 71 Friend or Foe) is Mr. Krabs' arch nemesis and the main antagonist in the SpongeBob SquarePants television series as well as The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, "The Great Patty Caper", "SpongeBob's Last Stand", "Truth or Square", "Atlantis SquarePantis", and "Frozen Face Off". He is also a protagonist villain in many episodes that lead/really focus on him where he was not portrayed as an antagonist/villain. Plankton serves as the protagonist in The Algae's Always Greener. He operates a struggling restaurant called the Chum Bucket, located directly across the street from the Krusty Krab. His primary goal in is to steal the Krabby Patty secret formula and put Mr. Krabs out of business. Plankton succeeds at stealing the recipe in the movie, but his goal of world domination is thwarted by SpongeBob. In Friend or Foe, it was revealed that Mr. Krabs and Plankton were once were best friends, but a dispute over the Krabby Patty recipe ended their friendship. Biography Sheldon J. Plankton was born the only known child of Papa and Mama Plankton. He was born on November 30, 1942. This is also the birth date of his former best friend and current rival Eugene H. Krabs. When they were kids, Plankton and Krabs were considered outcasts by other kids because Krabs was poor and Plankton was a nerd. When they discovered that money could bring them out of their poverty, they decided to make money selling hamburger patties, and set up a mini-restaurant in the local dump. At first, their burgers were not successful; the first of their patties was tried by Old Man Jenkins, who was knocked out by the contaminated burger. Plankton started complaining about how Jenkins had been old and not able to handle the patty. Offended by this, Krabs tried to take the recipe from Plankton to improve upon. Plankton wanted to do this himself, but he only ended up with the corner of the recipe, which read: "And a pinch of chum." Plankton stormed out of the restaurant, and went to create his own recipe, using only his memory, the corner of the recipe, and science. At school, Plankton tried to sell his chum burgers in a chum bucket and failed, when Krabs succeeded with his Krabby Patties, which he had created by accident when Plankton had slammed the door. Ingredients fell in the patty batter, thus creating the patty. Plankton later named his restaurant the Chum Bucket, after the secret ingredient of the original unsuccessful patty recipe. Mr. Krabs named his restaurant the Krusty Krab. To this very day, Plankton has been single-mindedly obsessed with obtaining the Krabby Patty formula and running the Krusty Krab out of business. He often goes to incredible and ridiculous lengths to do so. In "SpongeBob's Last Stand," for example, he builds a massive highway that goes straight through Jellyfish Fields and over the Krusty Krab, leading right to his restaurant simply to do so. In "Dunces and Dragons," it was implied that the fight between the Plankton and Krabs families began centuries ago when Plankton's evil overlord ancestor Planktonamor was vanquished by a Krabby Patty. Since there was not any feud between Krabs and Plankton in their early childhood, it is possible that these families settled their differences until the childhoods of Krabs and Plankton. In a comic story, Krabs and Plankton are shown to have been college roommates. Their rivalry is shown to have been caused by a series of things, including Plankton being stepped on by Mr. Krabs (which didn't annoy him at all), being closed inside Mr. Krabs' book (which aggravated him a little), and Mr. Krabs going out with his date ''and Plankton's date (which started their rivalry). Since it was revealed in "Friend or Foe" that they were rivals earlier than college, this story is likely non-canon. Even in the present day of the series, Krabs and Plankton are occasionally shown to somewhat get along, such as in "New Leaf" and "Best Frenemies." Later, when Plankton was an adult, he married Karen. Plankton's restaurant, the Chum Bucket, has always been extremely unsuccessful, not only because of competition from the Krusty Krab and Plankton's rude and cruel treatment of the people in Bikini Bottom, but also due to the extremely poor quality of the food and Plankton's constant failure to clean the place up. As its name implies, the Chum Bucket serves chum-based foods, all of which taste terrible. In "Plankton's Regular", the Krusty Krab adds chum to its menu in an attempt to steal Plankton's single regular customer (who was in reality being paid by Karen to eat at the Chum Bucket and pretend to like the food there). The customer is disgusted by their chum, and says that it is the second foulest thing he has ever tasted (it can be inferred that Plankton's chum is the number one worst). This implies that chum is inherently disgusting, and cannot be made to taste good, although is shown to be false in the Season 7 episode "Greasy Buffoons." Plankton used excess grease from the Krusty Krab's grease trap that was dumped near the Chum Bucket, to make his sales skyrocket (although it is unknown if this made the chum taste good, as Plankton could have been lying, and his customers could have been tasting only the grease, as the flavor could have covered up the chum's flavor). It should be noted that in real life, chum is made of grounded up fish parts that are inedible to humans, such as heads and guts, and is used as bait for sharks and similar creatures. This would mean that Plankton is killing fish (or at least collecting dead fish) and serving their remains to other fish. This has only ever been touched upon in "The Krabby Kronicle", where SpongeBob prints a story claiming this. However, SpongeBob was being tricked by Mr. Krabs into printing absurd lies to appeal to customers, so this story was supposedly false. It also possible, that in the alternate reality the show takes place in, chum might be made of something completely different (although still likely disgusting), like in the episode "Spongicus", Plankton named off many weird things that make up his chum, and fish parts was not on the list. Plankton has no regular employees, and runs the Chum Bucket entirely by himself, although he spends most of his time in his laboratory, due to having no customers. Plankton only runs the restaurant only when he has potential customers. In addition, when he does have customers, he also uses artificially intelligent machines to cover the other positions. Although it has been stated on multiple occasions that Plankton has never had a single customer, he has had brief success on several occasions, particularly in more recent episodes, such as "Spongicus" and "Chum Caverns". A fan once wrote to Stephen Hillenburg, questioning that, due to Plankton being a genius in the fields of robotics, inventions, and technology (including many other fields), why Plankton doesn't sell computers and the like instead of fast food (which would actually probably bring him much better success). Hillenburg answered this with that Plankton has never gone this route, simply due to him having never thought of it before, and also due to the fact that Plankton is slightly incompetent, and also that he has terrible communication skills, he would probably ignore the person's idea until the last minute. Family .]] Plankton's "wife" is his computer system Karen, even though neither of them fully consider the other their true soul mate, and their relationship is a very troubled one, although it was slightly mended by the events of the episode, Komputer Overload. Being a microscopic organism, Plankton's biological family numbers in the thousands. In "Plankton's Army," he recruits his entire family to help him steal the formula, thinking them all to be criminal masterminds like himself. However, much to his surprise, his family consists entirely of uneducated, red-necked hillbillies. These Relatives include (but are not limited to): Clem, Zeke, Rufus, Jeke, Billy Bob, Billy Jim, Billy Billy Bo Billy Banana Fana Fo Filly Plankton, Doug Plankton, Enis, and Rainchild, the only ones named. Plankton has two known ancestors. One is the evil wizard Planktonamor, who lived during medieval times and appeared in "Dunces and Dragons." Another is Dead Eye Plankton, a wealthy citizen who attempted a hostile takeover of Bikini Gulch but was defeated by Sheriff SpongeBuck SquarePants. Dead Eye Plankton lived during the Wild-West era and appeared in "Pest of the West." Criminal Records Plankton has a number of criminal records aside from snatching the formula. *Stealing the Krabby Patty Secret Formula - (Numerous times) *Enslaving Bikini Bottomites - (The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie) *Enslaving cave dwellers - (Chum Caverns) *Treason against King Neptune - (The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie) *Framing Mr. Krabs for grand theft so King Neptune would execute him - (The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie) *Grand theft of royal property - (The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie) *Hiring an assassin to murder SpongeBob and Patrick - (The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie) *Cruelty to animals (when he enslaves the bikini bottom, he forces Gary the Snail to pull a several ton block of stone - (The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie) *Arranging for Patrick to be eaten by sea lions for the entertainment of others - (Spongicus) *Stealing Famous Art (unintentional) - (Fiasco!) *Lying under oath - (Krabs vs. Plankton) *Poisoning customers with Chum - (Numerous times) *Stealing Sandy's Fur - (Someone's in the Kitchen with Sandy) *Playing Bad Clarinet (Actually Squidward's fault) - (Sweet and Sour Squid) *Other kinds of theft - (Numerous times) *Poisoning Old Man Jenkins with Plab Patties - (Friend or Foe) *Holds up better slogans to make Mr. Krabs poor (Chum Bucket Supreme) *Posing as Gary to prank SpongeBob (Shellback Shenanigans) *Creating a rock band to steal the formula but stopped by SpongeBob with his loud microphone (Krabby Road) *Unknown sentence (most likely for trying to steal the Krabby Patty Secret formula again) and for breaking out of prison (Jailbreak!) *Possible torture (when Squidward asks if anyone knows any instruments, Plankton responds by asking if instruments of torture count) - (Band Geeks) *Bigamy (he tries to marry Betsy Krabs while still married to Karen) - (Enemy In-Law) *Aiding in crime (his chum was used by criminals as knock out gas and disguises, both for robbery.) - (Jailbreak!) Video games Plankton appears in virtually all SpongeBob-related video games, usually as a major antagonist. *In Battle for Bikini Bottom, Plankton devises a plan to take over Bikini Bottom and obtain the Krabby Patty formula by creating a robot machine called the Duplicatotron 3000. However, the robots do not obey him and begin mindlessly rampaging across Bikini Bottom because he forgot to set the switch from "Do Not Obey" to "Obey". Plankton convinces SpongeBob and friends to defeat the robots (as SpongeBob believed that the situation was his fault) so that he can have enough time to fix the main Duplicatotron 3000 so he can take over the city by controlling the robot army. *In The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie Game, Plankton is the main antagonist, reprising his role from the movie. Even though he is the main antagonist, he is not a boss. *In Lights, Camera, Pants!, Plankton appears as a playable character. In the game, he uses a robotic suit to act in the auditions (the parts that are played). In addtion, the "Captive" role, as well as the auditions for it, take place in the Chum Bucket. *In Nicktoons Unite!, Plankton is one of the four main villains of the game. He uses a crab mech to fight the heroes. *In Creature from the Krusty Krab, Plankton is one of three playable characters, as well as the final boss of the game. He enlarges a Krabby Patty to massive size, only to have it come to life and begin chasing him. Eventually, Plankton enlarges himself to gigantic size, and begins rampaging across the city in pursuit of the giant patty. He is eventually defeated and reverted to his original size by Patrick, who was playing as his alter-ego Starfishman. *In SuperSponge, Plankton has a brief cameo, in which he yells at SpongeBob for stealing his time machine ("Blast you, SpongeBrat! You have found my secret time machine! Well, whatever you do, make sure you fill it up before you bring it back!"). *In SpongeBob SquarePants featuring Nicktoons: Globs of Doom, Plankton and four other villains team up with the heroes to defeat Globulous. *In Nicktoons Racing, Plankton appears as an unlockable character. In The Yellow Avenger, the player does helpful chores for Plankton, who is a minor character. *In SpongeBob's Boating Bash, Plankton is a playable character from the start of the game. *In Plankton's Robotic Revenge, he is the main antagonist. Inventions Plankton has shown to be very intelligent and has invented numerous of things throughout the series: *Hypno-Pod: Hypnotizes jellyfish to be slaves as seen in the online game Plankton's Pernicious Plot. *Time Machine: Seen in SuperSponge *Mind Control Bucket Helmets: Controls the mind of fish and turns them into Plankton's slaves. Seen in "The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie." *High-Powered Mechanical Bio Arm: Opens anything - revealed but malfunctioned in "Best Frenemies." *Enlargetron: Makes things bigger, seen in Creature from the Krusty Krab. Although, it was a dream, so this invention probably doesn't actually exist. *Robo-Krabs: Robot version of Mr. Krabs, Seen in Imitation Krabs, Operation Krabby Patty, New Leaf, and Spy Buddies. *The switch-lives-just-to-know-what-it's-like-o-microfier. Seen in "The Algae's Always Greener". *New computer inventions, seen in "Komputer Overload". *The Dispictulator: A freeze ray Plankton used in Creature from the Krusty Krab. *Brain-Powered Sponge-Robot: A robot modeled after SpongeBob that runs on brains. *K.A.R.E.N.: Robot Computer/Wife that can analyze anything. She is mobile. She can also create holographic food. *Pat-Bot: Built with a paddleball, pogo stick, razor blade, and metal claws. *Duplicatotron 3000: A machine that creates seemingly endless amounts of robot soldiers. Seen in Battle for Bikini Bottom. *Karen 2: Capable of hacking into Chum Bucket's system. Also his new wife but was destroyed by his new/old wife K.A.R.E.N. *Brain Sucker: Capable of getting info from his target/foe. *Death Robot: A robot that has super strength and a built in mallet. It was destroyed by Mr. Krabs after it attempted to destroy his cash register. *Majestic Sizzlemaster: A spatula that can fly and talk. Plankton used this in attempts to get the secret formula out of SpongeBob by earning his trust. *Clam-Digger: A multi-form device used to release and control a super goo bubble in It Came from Goo Lagoon *Many more throughout the series. Fears In "One Coarse Meal," it is revealed that Plankton is afraid of whales, enough to go insane. The reason is that a pod of whales ate his ancestors (also because whales eat plankton). He also fears his plans failing so many times. Schemes See: List of Plankton's schemes Trivia *There is a running gag in many episodes where he appears in (including the movie) he is squished. *It was revealed in Single Cell Anniversary, that Plankton is not actually green, his outfit is. Karen removes the green and we see an underwear clad pink plankton embarrassed of his nakedness. He also has a rack with identical green suits. *Plankton is left-handed. *Plankton and Mr. Krabs were born the exact same date as revealed in Friend or Foe. *Plankton appears in the "United Plankton Pictures" logo. *Interestingly, although his name is "Plankton," he bears more resemblance to the real-life class of organisms, Copepoda (Cyclops), which feed on phytoplankton. Do note that plankton are known to come from a different Kingdom than Copepods. *Despite all of Plankton's schemes, he has only been arrested five times, in [[The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie|The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie''']], Krabby Road, Sweet and Sour Squid, Fiasco!, and Jailbreak! (He escaped from the cops in "Goo Goo Gas"). *Plankton should be able to remember the Krabby Patty Secret Formula from The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, although Stephen Hillenburg said that chronologically, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie is the last part of the series. *It seems odd that Plankton wants to steal the Krabby Patty Secret Formula and make money from it, and in fact succeeded in accomplishing both in the movie, when doing so should have led to him facing a lawsuit for plagiarism and/or copyright infringement. Perhaps Mr. Krabs, due to his miserliness, never bothered to copyright the formula, and thus, Plankton could steal it without running the risk of being sued. *He was called "Shelly" in SpongeBob's Last Stand. *Plankton is college educated, which has become a running gag throughout the series, as he would usually shout, "'I went to college!" *Steven Hillenburg says that chronologically, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie is the series' end. However, in the movie Plankton says he's never had a customer, but in Chum Caverns and Chum Bucket Supreme, he has had at least, and usually more than his only competition, the Krusty Krab. *Plankton is afraid of whales in "One Coarse Meal", but not in "The Algae's Always Greener" and "Jailbreak!". *Out of his whole family, he seems to be the smartest, as his family is shown to be clueless and unintelligent. *His family is made up of hillbillies (or what they appear to be), and he appears to have forgotten their stereotype after all these years, as in their episode, he believes they are "criminal masterminds" and when he sees them, he is shocked and says "I've been away from home longer than I thought." It is possible that after this, he was disgusted by their stupidity, and possibly taught them to be smarter. *His first name is revealed in "Plankton's Army". *According to the TV movie "Truth or Square", Plankton has made 1,003 failed attempts to steal the formula. *At 2 inches tall, Plankton is actually gigantic for his kind. They, of course, did that to make viewers see him on the screen. *Plankton actually should be half the size of SpongeBob, as SpongeBob is 4 inches tall. *Plankton is the smallest of all the main characters and the smallest person in Bikini Bottom. *In "Plankton!", he seems very small. *In "Plankton!", Plankton has a lab, which is just a real Labrador. *In later episodes, when SpongeBob holds Plankton in his hand, he is bigger or SpongeBob's hand is smaller (compare "Plankton!" with "Single Cell Anniversary" or "The Main Drain"). *In "The Main Drain", Plankton is unusually bigger than other episodes. *He and Mr. Krabs is the only in their family to ever make friends with each other, their predecessors are enemies. *In several relatively recent episodes, the inside of his mouth was purple. It was corrected back to red in later episodes. *Early in the series, Plankton is considered the primary villain of the series. Later, as Krabs becomes more dramatically greedy and Plankton becomes less dramatically evil, the role of the main villain of the series becomes more debatable. *Plankton is assumed, by many, to be just as old as Mr. Krabs. This is understandable seeing as how they both knew each other since birth, which was noted in Friend or Foe. However, it is possible that this is ignored in later episodes. *Plankton has inventions for equipment in contrast to Mr. Krabs' spy technology. *As seen in Evil Spatula, Plankton revealed to have a room full of spatulas in the Chum Bucket. *Oddly enough, Plankton was not afraid of the Whale Cellmate in the episode Jailbreak!, as it was revealed in One Coarse Meal, Plankton is terrified of whales. *In the episode Sweet and Sour Squid, Plankton is revealed to have ears. References Category:Characters Category:SpongeBob SquarePants universe